On Choosing Joy

Life, I've learned, is very much about choosing.

Choosing what career path we will go down, or what spouse we will choose. Choosing to have children or not and the myriad of choices that comes with that. We choose our clothes and our churches, our dinner and our favorite brand of toothpaste. We choose everything down to the very last detail of our lives, yet we give up control when it comes to our emotions.

In a world of choosing, we give up our choice to choose Joy!

Instead of choosing to be joyful, we choose to wallow.

Instead of choosing Joy, we choose anger.

Instead of choosing Joy we choose despair.

We choose not to choose Joy.

It's not only handed to us, it's promised to us. It's guaranteed to us. And we too often kick it out of the way.

There is not a thing on this planet, knowing that you belong to Christ, that we cannot choose Joy over. I've seen it chosen over death, over destruction, over loss, over financial hardship, over every problem known to man. I have seen the difference that this one little choice can make in a life.

I'm not saying it's a light switch. That is certainly not the case. Instead, joy is like knitting a scarf or building a fence. It's not about the whole, it's about each individual link or board. It's about building a life around it. Sometimes it's even like taking a sledge hammer to a brick wall and wailing with all of our might. Sometimes it's choosing to fight for it, even when we are really tired.

And since we can know that the Joy of the Lord is ours and our ultimate promised goal? You can bet we will get there.

It's about choosing to see it. It's about waking up and setting our minds on it. It's about turning a corner in how we talk, how we see, how we proceed.

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